Finding the right make-up leaves many women with dusky complexion frustrated. Fret not. Expert says that from dual tone to catty make-up, there are looks aplenty they can play with.

Make-up expert Niti Luthra suggests how to create different looks:

* Black and grey combination: Apply ash grey eye shadow and contour it with black eye shadow. Then put lots of kohl and mascara. Follow it up with silver highlighter on brow-bone. Choose medium tone blush for cheeks. Finish the look with a red lipstick.

Representational image. Pixabay

* Dual tone look: Blend colours like deep blue and emerald green in equal proportion. It will turn into ash colour and then contour with black colour. If you are wearing a blue garment, use only blue eye shadow and contour with black shade giving a V-shape in corner of the eyes. Then use a silver highlighter on top. Similarly, you can create the smokey look with green shade. Apply a medium tone blush to your cheeks with a nude lip colour.

Prescribing women a new drug called remifentanil to help manage their labour pain may halve the need for an epidural than the traditional pethidine, claims a study.

The study, published in the Lancet, suggested that using remifentanil instead of pethidine could reduce the need for epidurals, instrumental deliveries and consequent morbidity for large numbers of women worldwide.

It can also increase the risk of trauma and long-lasting problems for the mother, such as incontinence and sexual dysfunction.

“Our findings challenge the routine use of pethidine for pain relief during labour,” said lead author Matthew Wilson, from Britain’s University of Sheffield.

“Remifentanil reduced the need for an epidural by half and there were no lasting problems for the mothers and babies. Pixabay

“Remifentanil reduced the need for an epidural by half and there were no lasting problems for the mothers and babies in our trial, although the effect of remifentanil on maternal oxygen levels needs to be clarified in further studies,” he added.

Remifentanil is rarely offered routinely in labour and its use restricted to women who cannot receive an epidural for medical reasons (such as blood clotting disorders).

Conversely, pethidine has been in widespread use since the 1950s, even after long been known not helpful to all women.

The study included 400 women aged over 16 years old who were giving birth after 37 weeks.

Only half as many women in the remifentanil group went on to have an epidural (19 per cent) than in the pethidine group (41 per cent).

Remifentanil instead of pethidine could reduce the need for epidurals. Flickr

These women rated their pain as less severe and also had less likely to need forceps and vacuum during labour than women given pethidine (15 per cent vs 26 per cent).